A Tibet advocacy group is reporting that two Tibetan protesters have been shot by security officers in Sichuan, according to the Guardian. The incident occurred on October 16; on October 15 a monk set himself on fire at Kirti Monastery in Aba, Sichuan, and on the 17th, a nun died from self-immolation in another area of Sichuan. From the Guardian:
London-based Free Tibet said the condition and whereabouts of the two men, who they named as Dawa and Druklo, was unknown. The group alleged that security forces fired during a demonstration outside a police station in Seda, Ganzi prefecture, in Sichuan. Last week, Radio Free Asia reported that hundreds of Tibetans had protested in the town.
The Guardian also has more details about the nun who self-immolated:
Officials from the Tibetan government in exile in Dharamsala, India, said the 20-year-old from the Dechen Chokorling nunnery killed herself at a crossroads. Fellow nuns reportedly refused to hand her remains to local security authorities.
Spokesman Thupten Samphel said there were reports that Tenzin Wangmo had called for religious freedom and for the return of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, before her death. No Tibetans had self-immolated in China before 2009, when one monk set fire to himself in Aba.
“These acts are due to the increased restrictions placed on monasteries in these particular localities and on the activities and nuns as well as the increased military and police presence there. The monks are not allowed to move around freely,” Samphel said. “The general desire for the Chinese government to respect the fundamental human rights of the Tibetan people has led people to set themselves on fire. One constant theme is the wish for the Dalai Lama to return.”
The cases could not be confirmed independently, with police and government officials in Sichuan saying they knew nothing of the incidents.
